State v. Traylor

Citations

• 100 Miss. 544
• 56 So. 521

Syllabus

<p>1. Banks and Banking. Indictment. Statutory offense. Construction of statutes. Penal statutes.</p> <p>In a prosecution under Code of 1906, section 1169, -which provides that if the president, manager, cashier, etc., of any bank or broker’s office, or establishment conducting the business of receiving on deposit “the money or other valuable things of such persons,” shall receive any deposit, knowing or having good reason to believe the establishment to be insolvent, without informing the depositor of its condition, he shall be imprisoned, etc. The indictment charged that accused, while cashier of a bank which was conducting the business of receiving on deposit “the money and, other valuable things of other persons” and knowing that the bank was then insolvent willfully received from a certain person on deposit a sum of money, without informing him of the bank’s condition. Held, that the indictment did not sufficiently charge the offense attempted to be defined by section 1169 of the Code of 1906 in that it substituted the word “other” for “such” the two words not being synonymous.</p> <p>2. Same.</p> <p>Code of 1906, section 1169, only prohibits the officers of “banks or brokers’ offices or establishments” conducting the business of receiving on deposit the money or other valuable things “of such persons” from receiving deposits when insolvent, and does not prohibit all persons, such as officers of a mercantile establishment from receiving deposits when they are insolvent.</p> <p>3. Construction on Statute.</p> <p>In construing ambiguous statutes it is competent not only to look at the statute being construed but also at the law which was in existence prior to the enactment of the statute in question.</p> <p>4. Same.</p> <p>The court has no right to add anything to or take anything from a statute, where the meaning of the statute is clear. It is only in cases where the statute is ambiguous that any rule for the determination or construction of statutes can be reso